Four Words
by dragonflybeach
Summary: Dean's entire world was crumbling around him, but there were four words that would make everything all right again.


It was later, much later, when Dean realized Sam had been waiting for him to leave to confront their father.

He also realized that the strange peace between his father and younger brother that had existed for the past few weeks had just been Sammy saving up all his frustrations for that one showdown.

He heard the shouting as soon as he turned off the engine.

He couldn't make out most of the words, but the tones and volumes of their voices told Dean that this was one of Dad and Sam's more epic arguments.

There was a crash and the sound of glass shattering, and Dean was out of the car and through the front door, the six pack of beer and two bags of groceries left behind.

" ... you think you're going to stop me?" Sam demanded. "I'm an adult now, not that you've noticed. You gonna keep me tied up in the trunk of the car?"

"Maybe I should, if you think you're actually going to do this!" Dad roared back. "How can someone who's supposedly so smart do something this stupid ... "

"Dad! Sam!" Dean shouted over them. "What's going on?"

The both turned to face him, Dad looking relieved at Dean's arrival, while Sam looked ... disappointed?

"Your brother here," Dad waved a hand at Sam. "got offered a full scholarship to Stanford."

Dean smiled proudly at Sam. "You got offered a full scholarship to Stanford? That's great, Sammy."

Sam didn't smile back. He opened his mouth to answer, but Dad interrupted.

"It's not great! He actually thinks he's going to go to college!"

Dean looked from one to the other, frowning. "But that's ok, right? He can go to school, and he can hunt with us when school is out."

"I'm not going to hunt any more." Sam said quietly.

"You don't have to come on hunts anymore." Dean shrugged. "But you'll still help us with research and all, right? I mean, big place like Stanford, you'll have access to lots of materials."

"My help isn't wanted." Sam sneered, looking over Dean's shoulder toward the man behind.

"I told him if he leaves, don't come back." Dad replied with a deadly calm.

Dean shook his head frantically. "No! It doesn't have to be like that! He can go to school, and we'll see him during the summer and Chrismas ... "

Dad shouted over him. "Have you lost your mind, Dean? Stay in one place and wait for the thing that killed your mother to find him? Turn his back on the quest to kill it, to protect other families from what we went through once and for all? What good is a top shelf college education to a hunter, exactly?"

"Oh yeah, because we're doing so well on the revenge mission!" Sam taunted. "Eighteen years later, you still don't even know for sure what it _was,_ much less where to find it or how to kill it! Why don't you just man up for once and admit the reason you don't want me to leave is because you don't want me out from under your control!"

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe I'm trying to protect you?" Dad raged.

"Well, you know, you've been training us to take care of ourselves since Dean was big enough to lift a gun. So do you really still need to protect us? Are you that bad of a teacher? Or is it that you're afraid that Dean might rebel from your iron fist and leave too?" Sam shot back.

Dean turned to Sam, waiting for Sam to say the four words that would make everything right.

But instead, Sammy and Dad were shouting at each other again. Dean barely heard them, he was so focused on waiting for Sam to say those four words.

" ...turn your back on your family, after everything ... "

" ...covering everything, even my books and room and board! Stanford's providing for me better than my father ever did ... "

" ... selfish, spoiled little brat ... "

" ... drowning yourself in misery and alcohol ... "

" ... never left you, not like my father did ... "

" ... left us all the time! ... "

" ... did everything for the two of you ... "

" ... Dean was more of a parent ... "

" ... don't know what's out there ... "

" ... yeah, I do, and I'm not going looking for it anymore ... "

Dean kept looking at Sam, waiting for the four words.

Finally Dad kicked a hole in the wall. Dean still didn't know who had knocked over the end table and broken the lamp.

"This argument is over! You are not going to Stanford, and that's final!"

Sam stared at their father with the same quiet control John had displayed earlier in the evening. "I'm going, and you can't stop me."

He turned and headed down the hall, toward his and Dean's bedroom.

Dean ran after him.

"I meant what I said, Samuel John Winchester!" Dad thundered from the living room. "You walk out that door, and don't you ever come back!"

"Sam?" Dean asked shakily as his brother picked up the duffle and backpack that he had apparently already packed.

Sam brushed by, not looking at his brother.

"Sam!" Dean repeated, grabbing at Sam's arm.

He was half dragged back to the living room by the youngest Winchester.

Sam squared off and faced his father. "I won't." he vowed.

"Sam!" Dean shouted, his voice cracking, unable to say anything else.

Sam turned to him. Dean stood silently, and waited for Sammy to say those four words.

Instead, Sam shook his head, and said "I'm sorry, Dean."

Dean watched in disbelief as Sam turned away, headed toward the door, still waiting for those four words.

When the door slammed with enough force to rattle every window in the house, Dean stood staring at it until his father grabbed him by the shoulder and forced him to turn around.

He was still waiting for those four words.

_"Dean, come with me."_


End file.
